Yarn-changs feeding mechanism for



Nov. 16, 1937. H. M ADAM'S 2,099,307

YARN CHARiGE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES FiledFeb.- 10, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet l Mom's mcnms" INVENTOR ATTORNEYJ H.McADAMS Nov. 16, 1937.

YARN CHANGE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb.10, 1936 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 711: (Moms INV ENTOR I Jlarrg ATTORNEY.

Nov. 16', 1937. HJMQADAMS 2,099,307

YARN CHANGE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb.10, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet s 30mg ma aam INVENTOR 1 Z q ATTORN EY$ PatentedNov. 16, 1937 YARN-CHANGE FEEDING MECHANISM FOR CIRCULAR KNITTINGMACHINES Harry McAdams, Philadelphia, Pa, assignor to The Nolde andHorst Company, Reading, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania ApplicationFebruary 10, 1936, Serial No. 63,233

7 Claims.

My invention relates to the feeding of changes of yarns to the needlesof a circular knitting machine, and more particularly to improved meansfor this purpose that may be effectively and satisfactorily applied torib-knitting machines having both cylinder and dial knitting needles.

Within the circle of needles of the usual plain fabric knitting machine,room is ordinarily found for some form of cutting and clampingdevices toholdthe severed yarn ends in known advantageous position extendingacross the needles to their respective guides for reliably effectiveneedle re engagement when yarn changes are desired.

Such known yarn change means, however, cannot be applied to the ordinaryrib-knitting machine, as the space within the circle of cylinder needlesis commonly filled by the usual rib dial, dial needles, and operatingmechanism. And it is further recognized that free floating yarn-endscannot be relied upon to engage the needles with sufficient certainty toinsure continuous knitting, making some means of holding such ends anessential of any change feeding if it is to be reliably efiective.

Therefor among the objects of my invention, are to provide means,readily applicable and satisfactorily operative with rib knittingmachines,

for feeding a desirable plurality of yarns, providing adequatechan'geawith unrestricted selec- 'tion in such yarn changes, and withindividual clamped retension of the severed ends of the withdrawn yarns,held in an effective position to insure their positive re-engagementwith the needles as determined by the feeding movement of theirrespective guides.

' With the above main objects in view, my improved yarn change feedingmeans comprises separate guides for the several yarns, separate clamps 1for each yarn cooperative with its respective guide tohold eachwithdrawn yarn end, cutting means to sever each withdrawn yarn,andpattern con trol means for selectively effecting any desired yarnchange, all of which will now be more fully described in connection withthe accompanying drawings, and the novel features of which are set forthin the' appended claims.

Fig. 1 is a partial plan view of a fragmentary portion of a rib knittingmachine and shows also 1 in p lan View a preferred embodiment of my yarnchanging mechanism applied to this machine.

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation corresponding with Fig. 1, but showing,my attachment in side elevation. r

Fig. 3 is-an enlarged :detail view showing the In the accompanyingdrawings I have shown a preferred embodiment of my improvements asapplied to a rib-knitting machine of usual and known construction andoperation, the machine showing being fragmentary and incomplete butsufficiently indicated, it is believed, for a full and completeunderstanding of the nature of my attachments and the manner of theirautomatic selective operation.

The circles of vertically movable knitting needles 2, in the machineindicated, are mounted in a needle cylinder 3 non-rotatably carried by,the table 4, which also carries the cam cylinder 5, rotated in usual andknown manner to operatively move the needles 2. The space within thecircle of needles 2, is occupied by a circle of horizontally movableneedles 6, shown mounted in a non-rotatable rib-dial l, and operated bya rotated rib-cam dial 8, to cooperate with the needles 2 in theproduction of rib-knitting in wellknown and commonly understood manner.

Thepresent improvements have the object in View, as previously stated,of providing a multifeed yarn change mechanism that will desirably holdthe severed withdrawn yarn-ends in an advantageous position to insuretheir positive reengagement with the needles when desired, and

to adapt such mechanism to a rib-knitting type of machine in which thespace within the circle of cylinder needles is-occupied by othermechanism.

drawings showtwo pillars or posts H1, '5

vision for four being shown as illustrative only and not to beconsidered as either a maximum or minimum limit. These guides and clampsare essentially alike in construction and operation, differing only incertain compensating proportions so that all will act alike, and in thefollowing detail description I will describe but one guide and one clampand its mounting and feeding operation, and similar parts in each willcarry the same reference numerals for the sake of clearness and avoidinga confusing number of refer ence figures.

|5 designates a yarn guide pivotally mounted in frame II on pintle I3 soas to swing its yarn guide eye end l'l' into and out of yarn feedingrelation to the needles 2 and 6, a lift pin I8, backed by spring is,tending to normally swing said guide |5 to raised non-feeding position,and a push rod 20 being actuated, as hereinafter described, to lowersaid guide |5 into yarn feeding position. Rod 25 is shown with a notch2| engageable by a detent blade 22 adapted to lock said rod in holdingcontact with the lowered guide, and the latter is released to the actionof lifting pin l8 by disengagement of blade 22 tlnough its dependingspring-tensioned releasing extension 23, in a manner later hereindescribed.

indicates a yarn clamp mounted horizontally in frame I to slidelongitudinally, and tensioned by a spring 38 to normally press itsyarn-clamping foot 32 against a contact pad or bulge on the rotatedrib-cam-dial 3; the clamp 30 being shown with a lateral extension 34forming a shoulder engageable by a wedge-cam 35 to retractingly movesaid clamp reversely against the tension of its spring 3!. Cam 35 isshown as carried at the lower end of an arm. 35 depending from one endof a lever 31, having a slotted pivotal connection 38 to said lever andtensioned by springs 39 and 40 for a purpose hereinafter explained.Lever 31 is intermediately pivoted at 4| to frame H, and its oppositeend 52 is shown as downturned to bear against yarn guide I5, at anintermediate point in the length of the latter, lever 37 extendingtransversely relative to guide I5 and normally held in contact with thelatter by a spring 53, as shown.

A cutter device for the yarn is shown as mounted on an extension 55 offrame II, with a fixed blade 5| and a movable blade 52 normally held inopen position by a tensioning spring on pivot pin 53. The opened bladesare positioned to engage the withdrawn yarn, and are closed to sever thelatter by a push bar 55, shown as mounted in frame beneath yarn clamp33, and moved longitudinally therein against tension of retractingspring 55, the forward end of said bar 55 engaging against movablecutter blade 52, and the rear end projecting into the path of anoperating cam as hereinafter explained. Bar 55 is shown with a laterallyprojecting cam 5'! engageable with the lower end of arm 36 to swing thelatter on its pivotal connection 38 against the tension of springs 39and 40 sufficiently to move wedge cam 35 outwardly beyond the extensionor shoulder 34 on yarn clamp 30, whereby the latter is released forclamping movement by its spring 3 I.

Frame II is shown as having a usual latch guard 53, provided in thiscase with a throat 59 adapted to the four yarn guides I5, I5, l5, I5shown in the drawings, and 62 indicates a usual yarn guide aperture fora possiblemain yarn not subject to change. In connection with the fourguides shown in the drawings, each is provided with a cooperating yarnclamp for its respective yarn, and the operating mechanism abovedescribed is duplicated for each guide and clamp, it being noted thatlevers 31 have different lengths to compensate for their varyingdistances from the common pintle I6 for the guides I5. One outtingdevice only is shown, as conveniently effective to sever eachselectively withdrawn yarn. And push bar 55 is shown with a duplicatecam 57, each arranged, as indicated, to engage and swing two adjacentarms 36. To selectively operate any one of the four guides l5, it willbe observed that their push rods 23 are arranged at four differentlevels, so each may be singly moved; and extensions 23 are shown atdifferent radial distances from the axis of the cam cylinder 5 forselective individual operation if desired, though commonly not required.

The sequence of movements of the above described mechanism in effectinga selective change of feed of two yarns will now be described: Assumingthe knitting machine to be in operation with my change mechanism,carried on posts Ill, l3, rotating with the cam cylinder 5 around thecircle of needles 2 and 6, with one guide IS in lowered feeding positionand its yarn entering the circle of needles in known manner at theadvancing knitting wave caused by the knitting cams of cylinder 5 andcam dial 8; the other three guides in this particular disclosure beingheld in raised non-feeding position and their yarn ends separatelyclamped within the circle of needles against pad or bulge 33 on cam.dial 8 by pressure thereagainst of their respective clamp feet 32.

A change of feed is effected by raising the lowered guide to non-feedingposition, and lowering a selected one of the raised guides to loweredfeeding position. Raising of the lowered guide is determined by a cammovable to engage the extension 23 to release detent blade 22 for thatparticular guide from its holding engagement in the notch 2| of itslowering rod 22, permitting lift pin I8 for that guide to act to raiseit to nonfeeding position. Lowering to feeding position of a selectedone of the three raised guides is determined by a cam plate 60vertically movable to position its cam edge in a path to engage thelowering rod 20 of the determined guide, the cam plate acting to pushsaid rod inward to lower its guide and the detent blade 22 for that rodengaging the notch 2| thereof to hold said rod in guide loweringposition. The guide eye ll of this lowered guide I5 is adjacent butoutside the circle of needles, and its yarn end is clampingly heldinside said circle, so that the yarn is laid across the needle circle inthe most advantageous manner to insure engagement thereof by theneedles, such engagement pulling said end from its particular clamp. Theguide lifted to nonfeeding position acts to swing its lever 31 on itspivot bearing 4| lowering its arm 35 and causing cam 35 thereof toengage shoulder of extension 34 to retract the yarn clamp 30 for thatparticular guide'and move it against the tension of its spring 3| anddraw its clamp foot 32 away from dial pad 33, permitting the yarn fromsuch raised guide to enter between said foot'and pad and at the sametime to enter between the fixed and movable blades 5| and 52 ofthe'cutter device.

At this time push bar 55 is moved to cause blade 52 to close and severthe yarn therebetween and the cams 51, 5?, on said bar 55 act tooutwardly swing the lower ends of all arms 36 thus freeing the retractedclamp above referred to, and the latter is then moved by its spring 3|to press its foot 32 against pad 33 to clamp the severed yarn endtherebetween. Single selection of action for releasing extensions 23 isnot required in all cases, and in the drawings cam 85 is shown asengaging any extension 23 in lowered position and raising it, the camplate 60 being shown as contacting its selected rod 20 a sufficient timeto permit reengagement of its detent blade 22 after action of cam 85 soas to hold its guide in lowered feeding position untilthe next change isdesired. And it will be noted that the change feed guide is loweredbefore moving the feeding guide to non-feeding position, causing asufficient over-lapping feed of both yarns to tie in the change yarn.Also it will be noted that each withdrawn yarn is severed by the singlecutting device but is clamped by its particular yarn clamp, and thelatter is opened to receive its yarn at the time of its withdrawal, soas to engage only its own particular yarn. Any change of yarn may beeffected by proper location of cam plate 69 to act on the rod 28 oftheparticular guide carrying the desired substitute yarn, and loweringof such selected guide is timed with the raising of the prior feedingguide to insure continuous knitting.

Cam. plate 60 for selective operation on push rods 20, 20 20, 20, isshown in the drawings as carried by a bracket 6i and adjusted thereon byscrews 62, $2 for accurate radial position relative to said rods.Bracket BI is mounted to vertically slide on a table carried support 63and normally rests on the latter under tension of a spring 64, but israised therefrom to a selected level through its lifting rod 65extending downwardly through table 4 to rest intermediately on a lever66. One end of lever 66 is shown with a pivot support M and its otherend is adapted to be operated by a pattern chain 68 carrying lugs 59 ofvarying height arranged in accordance with the desired yarn changes.Gear wheel for chain 68 is shown as operated by a pawl H carried by aslide bar 12, reciprocated by a lever 13 intermediately pivoted to tablel, with one of its ends flexibly connected to bar i2 and its other endcontacted by a stud 14 secured torotate with cam cylinder 5.

Bracket 61 is shown with a cam arm Bil secured thereto and movedvertically with bracket 6i into a path to contact the end of push bar 55which operates the movable blade 52 of the cutter device described, camarm 8!} being indicated as of a width to contact said bar 55at any levelto which pattern lugs 69 raise said bracket 6!, and is shown in properrelative position tooperate said cutter blade in timed relation to thewithdrawal of a yarn.

As described releasing extensions 23 are operated jointly by a cam 85carried on a plate 8t mounted to radially slide on support 63 and ten.-sioned by spring 8! to move said cam 85 into the path of travel ofextensions 23. For proper timed relation of cam 85 it is shown aslocated within the length of cam. plate 60, and projecting through anelongated aperture in the base of bracket El, and it is moved to idleposition outside the path of travel of extensions 23, throughplatecarried stud 88 engaging a reciprocated cam plate 89. Plate 89 isshown as constantly reciprocated through an oscillated lever 90 actuatedby reciprocated pawl bar it, and its action is to retract plate 89 andmove the latter sufficiently to position a detaining lift 91 on plate 86for engagement by the spring lowered bracket iii,- to hold said slideretracted, the reciprocations of cam plate 89 then being idle movements.

The lugs (59 on chain 68 determine the automatic yarn changes, and luglifting lever 66 acts on rod 65 to raise bracket 6| and thus positionscam plate 60 for'action on a selected one of rods to lower its guide I5into feeding position. Lifting of bracket 6! releases its engagementwith lift 9! on plate 86 and the spring 81 of the latter moves saidplate inward to position cam 85 in the path of travel of extensions 23to raise the latter and free detent blade 22 from its engagement withthe rod 20 holding a yarn guide in feeding position, said rod being at adifferent level from the raised cam plate 63 and free to move, theraising of such guide acting as above described to open the clamp forthat particular yarn. Cam, 8% raised with bracket Si is thus positionedto operate cutter operating push bar 55, and the latter acts as beforedescribed to sever the withdrawn yarn and also to free the opened clampto move forward and hold such severed yarn against contact pad or bulge33 011 cam dial 3. I

The operative movements of the knitting machine have not been describedas heretofore known and well understood, and from the foregoingdescription, and the showing in the drawings, it is thought that thenature of my attachments, the manner of their operation, and their timedrelations will be readily understood.

My improvements have been described as particularly adapted to a ribknitting machine, but are not to be understood aslimited to this type ofmachine, and the specific mechanism above shown and described may ofcourse be changed and modified without departing from the spirit of myinvention as defined in the following claims.

What I claim is:--

1. In a knitting machine having a circle of knitting needles andoperative mechanism therefor, a yarn changing mechanism comprising, aplurality of yarn guides arranged to selectively feed yarn adjacent theoutside of said circle of needles, an equal plurality of yarn clampingmembers movable across the needle circle and each having an operativeconnection to its respective guide for retracting said member bymovement of its guide to non-feeding position, a clamping contact memberadjacent the inner side of said needle circle, and a common yarn cuttingdevice operative to release any retracted clamping member to advance andengage its severed thread against said contact member within the needlecircle.

2. In a knitting machine having a circle of knitting needles andoperative mechanism therefor, a yarn changing mechanism comprising, aplurality of selectively movable yarn guides, an equal plurality ofseparately movable yarn clamping members having a common cooperative contact member arranged adjacent the inner side of said needle circle, eachguide having a guide eye end movable to and from feeding positionadjacent the outerside of said circle of needles and an operativeconnection to its respective mov-' able clamping member for retractingthe latter from said common contact member by guide movement tonon-feeding position, and a cutting device operative to release eachretracted clamping member for movement into clamping engagement withsaid common contact member.

3. In a knitting machine having a circle of knitting needles andoperative mechanism therefor, a yarn changing mechanism comprising, aplurality of yarn guides having means for selectively moving them tofeeding position adjacent the outerside of said needle circle and meansfor reversely moving each guide to non-feeding position, an equalplurality of yarn clamping members movable transversely across theneedle circle for engagement with a clamping contact member adjacent theinner side of said needle circle and each having an operative connectionto its respective guide for reverselyimoving said clamping member bymovement of its guide to non-feeding position, and a yarn cutting devicehaving means for operating the same and means for releasing eachretracted clamping member for engagement with said contact member toclampingly hold a severed yarn end against the latter.

4. In a knitting machine having a circle of knitting needles andoperative mechanism therefor, a yarn changing mechanism comprising, aplurality of yarn guides each having a push rod for selective movementof the guides to yarn feeding position adjacent the outer side of saidcircle of needles and means for releasing each rod for reverse movementof each guide to nonfeeding position, a clamping contact member adjacentthe inner side of said needle circle, a plurality of movable yarnclamping members movable across said circle into cooperative engagementwith said contact member and each movable member having a shoulderextension and a retractive cam operated by its respective guide movingto non-feeding position to withdraw said movable clamping members fromengagement with said contact member, a cutting device having anoperating bar and releasing cams thereon adapted to release eachwithdrawn clamping member, and pattern control means for synchro nouslyoperating a push rod of one selected guide and the releasing means of aguide in feeding position, and the operating bar for said cutting devicewhereby one guide is withdrawn from feeding position and its severedyarn end clampingly engaged inside the circle of needles and anotheryarn guide moved to feeding position and its yarn end withdrawn fromclamped engagement.

5. A yarn changing mechanism for rib-knitting machines comprising a yarnclamping contact member carried by the rib cam dial adjacent the innerside of the needle circle, a plurality of cooperating yarn clampingmembers movable transversely across said needle circle into cooperativeengagement with said contact member,

a plurality of yarn guides selectively movable into and out of feedingposition adjacent the outer side of said needle circle and each guidehaving means for retracting its respective movable clamping member forengagement with said dial carried contact member, and a yarn cuttingdevice operative to release each retracted clamping member for movementinto re-engagement with said dial contact member.

6. A yarn changing mechanism for rib-knitting machines comprising a yarnclamping contact member carried by the rib cam dial adjacent the innerside of the needle circle, a plurality of cooperating yarn clampingmembers tensioned vto normally move transversely across said needlecircle into cooperative engagement with said contact member and eachmovable member having a shouldered extension and a cam engageabletherewith to retractingly move it away from said dial contact member, ayarn cutting device having an operating bar provided with cams torelease each movable clamping member from the action of its retractivecam, a plurality of yarn guides tensioned to normally rest in nonfeedingposition and each having a push rod to move its guide to feedingposition adjacent the outer side of said needle circle, a detent to holdeach push rod against its feeding position guide and having a releasingextension to free said rod for reverse movement of said guide, anoperative connection from each guide to the retractive cam of itsrespective movable clamp member adapted to retract the latter bymovement of its guide to non-feeding position, and pattern controlledmeans for synchronously operating the push rod of a selected guide andthe releasing extension of a guide in feeding position and the cutteroperating bar, whereby one guide is moved to feeding position andanother Withdrawn from feeding position and its severed yarn end clampedagainst the dial contact memher.

7. In the yarn changing mechanism set forth in claim 6, pattern controlmechanism comprising a pattern chain, a reciprocated pawl carrying barfor moving said chain in a step-bystep movement, lugs of varying heightcarried by said chain, a lever variously operated by said lugs, a slideframe variously moved by said lever and having cams positioned by saidvaried movement to operate a selected guide push rod and said cutteroperating bar, a cam released by movement of said slide to operate therod detent releasing extensions, and a slide cam operated by saidreciprocated pawl-carrying arm to position each of the aforesaid cams innonoperative position between the actions of the pattern chain lugs.

HARRY McADAMS.

